


A Lesson in Living

by Camlann



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Steve Rogers Feels, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-31
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-03-09 21:30:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3265019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Camlann/pseuds/Camlann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For so long, Steve's been trying to learn to live in this new world he'd ended up in. Slowly but surely, and with the help of more and more friends, he learns. Lives. And that's the important part, to live to his fullest with this second chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lesson in Living

He bonds with Natasha through fear. 

Not that she'd admit it and not that he would bring it up, but when a man who is nothing but a ghost hurls himself between them, it's each other they find at their back. While they've dragged Sam into this, they'd been a part of it for as long as they can remember. 

With this ghost in particular, too, because a mask removed is a memory to both. 

Allied powers, both literal and historic. Friends at long last and Steve takes her into a hug when she gets back from... Whatever she was doing. He doesn't ask and she doesn't tell. At least, not at first. He's not the first person to believe in her, but he's, perhaps, the first one that shares history and still believes in the good of mankind. A feeling that is foreign to her, an agent of shield that spent most her time cleaning up messes silently, taking out the scum of the place, and protecting those that were so out of their depth she sometimes wondered about their intelligence to be this ignorant.

She speaks in Russian that night, sitting in a chair in the corner of Steve's room, bottle of a good vodka in her hand. He's been awake since she stepped silently into the room and she's lucky he's been traveling with her long enough to know the scent of her soap paired with the rhythm of her heart. With the shield by his bed, she wouldn’t be able to block the blow he makes thinking he’s in danger. 

He doesn't sit up though, just lets her talk. There are moments he wishes she's sit at his side, a strangled quality to her voice, but he lets her be. When silence is all that's been said and he realizes she's passed out, Steve takes the care to fold a blanket around her.

She's still there in the morning, none the worse for the night before. It's only when he promises pancakes that she goes to shower, and he offers his bathroom because it seems the thing to do. Keep those going through something close, even if it seemed a bit odd. 

It's only when she accepts quietly and leaves the room that he realizes... 

The bottle hasn't been opened.

\----------

He finds a friend in Thor loudly.

They start working out together not long after the god returns with Jane and her gaggle to New York. Thor is impressed by his strength and Steve is happy to have someone else to claim as a friend. Between Natasha and Sam, he's growing and with Thor in the mix, he feels more at home, even if it's just because the other tends to bring out his more... Sarcastic side.

They make things up. Stark can’t tell, either, so it’s a moment of fun. They act their ages when together, a young god and a young captain. That Steve can be heard laughing more makes for gossip at the tower. That he's smiling more makes for gossip outside of it.

The first time they spar, they are wary of each other, if only because Thor is afraid to break him and Steve is nervous of offending a tradition of Asgardian culture.

The second time is the first time they don't hold back.

They make the news once, because of how much challenge there is in both voices as they taunt each other. Natasha calls them rambunctious. Sam calls them frat boys and no, he doesn’t need a noogie, thank you very much. Steve and Thor only break one bench in the park and that's only because Thor fell into it racing him back to the tower. They really need to watch for objects and not just people when they do that.

(They return later and fix it, all apologetic eyes and words. They make the news then, too.)

It turns them into something unstoppable, and it begins a wonderful time. If Steve sneaks away to Asgard to learn how to wield an axe when he's supposed to be camping off the map, it doesn’t seem too bad. He doesn't know if they actually sneak away, but he does know he's one of few mortals allowed in the place and that Sif can kick his ass in good time. A challenge though, that’s what he is, and brave as well. Clasping hands with the Warrior’s Three and the Lady Sif to return home, he thinks he’s gotten away with it. 

Not quite but no one says anything other than a sniff from Natasha at his shoulder when he’s back, saying she thought he’d smell more like smoke than he does. Sam is too worried that Natasha has sniffed him and Thor is laughing merrily along as he works a tablet over how to make something called Creme Brulee. 

All in all, a fine trip. 

If, in the end, they end up catching each other’s weapons on the battlefield and not noticing entirely until they’re standing there and a few people around them are agape... Well, it’s not like anyone’s really surprised that Steve can hold the damn thing, though Sam makes a valiant effort of moving it off his car the next day. 

\----------

He learns to understand Clint through food. 

The man shows up at his door and tumbles in, Natasha following behind and stepping over the archer with a question about a first aid kit and Sam wincing because he was supposed to be holding that boy up. Clint groans from the floor, telling it no, and Steve has the decency to shut the door before he picks him up and set him on his sofa. 

Natasha fixes a banged up hand and Sam offers to run out for something. Steve mentions he has hot dogs on the stove and he can just add a few more to the pot, really… 

So it’s a night in. A movie night, by all rights, and somehow Thor ends up there too. 

It’s Natasha that pulls him aside and asks why he eats the way he does. Steve double blinks under her hard stare, one that's assessing him and he doesn’t know what for. He asks very quietly, and very confused, what he eats like. She points to Clint, watching as he divided up his food and then ate all of it anyways. Making sure that he had some to share, just in case, but upon realizing that there wasn’t anyone who needed to be shared with, devouring the food entirely and quickly. The sweets or things he seems to really appreciate taking too much of and fending off anyone that tries to take any of it, even in teasing. 

Steve blinks again. Natasha pokes her finger into his ribs and says they’ll talk about it later. He agrees, if only because he’s never realized he’d eaten like that before. 

Still, he quickly doubles up on the hot dogs on his plate before returning, dumping two of four on Clint’s. The archer blinks at them in surprise and Steve thinks that if he ever had a little brother, it would probably work the same way. Chips are soon added to the mix and Steve becomes a lot more aware of how he’s eating. 

And how much Clint is eating, too. 

When the archer has passed out and Sam has gone home, Steve ends up in the kitchen, cocoa in hand. Natasha across from him, her charge in the other room, she tells him about the childhood of the man on his sofa. 

Steve admits he didn’t have a lot, either. That’s probably where the habits have come from. Always making sure there was enough for everyone but making sure that he ate what he got. Everything was boiled and, though his Ma tried… sometimes it just was the same thing over and over and over again. They weren't reasons he understood as a kid, just knew they weren’t the only ones. That on top of doctor’s visits and whatever medication he needed at the time made for thin pickings, in reality. 

The archer is in his doorway and, for once, Steve hasn’t heard someone approach. Clint looks real hard at him and stays silent, but the Captain just raises his head and offers him a mug instead. 

Then promptly says he has mini peeps... For marshmallows. Thor and him thought they would be fun to watch melt. 

The chapped lips of the other crack and Steve smiles back. He has two assassins stay with him that night. Clint gets to sleep back on the sofa, because if it’s big enough for the Captain and a demi-god, it’s way too big for Clint. Natasha in his guest room and he slumps into bed. Friends, though still only as many as he has fingers on one hand. Not a bad thing, though, definitely not. 

If he cons Thor and Sam into helping him watch out for Barton when he can’t, it’s all in a day’s work. He is Captain, after all, and they are his Avengers. 

\----------

He almost doesn’t get to know Bruce. 

It’s hard to comprehend all that makes Bruce Banner into the Hulk on the best of days. It’s science that’s not beyond him, but it’s a mishap that makes his head hurt. Some people tell him it’s because of him that Banner’s this way or, at least, the serum that runs through his veins. After all, didn’t everyone try to replicate it? 

That created the Hulk... And maybe Steve feels a little ball of black guilt in his chest about that. 

Still though, it’s a surprise when on a bad night, when nightmares have sprung up and he doesn’t want to go to the gym because he just wants to be alone, the door to the roof opens behind him with a rattle of cans strewn about. He can’t get drunk. Trust him, he’s tried with everything from too many beers to count to liquor to Asgardian mead. Nothing works, so the cans laying scattered don’t mean much, not at all. The warm hand on his shoulder does, however, and the Captain looks up. Where Thor brings out his youth, perhaps it can be said that Banner brings out his age. Blue eyes have lines around them, not permanent but there enough that tonight they show, and the blue is dark, cool, empty. Nothing that implies liveliness could be seen about him tonight. 

Bruce sits, jacket still on and hands between his knees, as if offering Steve something in a simple touch had been too much and now he had to restart whatever plan he’d come up here with. Steve can tell when someone has a plan, even if it doesn’t work out. 

He, himself, is deathly silent. He doesn’t know what to say to this great mind. He respects him, would take his advice on something happening outside himself in a heartbeat, but that didn’t feel like tonight. When Bruce pulls out a folded and refolded piece of paper from his pocket, he just keeps his eyes forward to give him time. It’s part of the other man doing research that he admires, but sometimes he wishes the past would stay in the past. It was hard enough moving forward without it showing up constantly in his waking day. He had enough of it in his sleeping night. 

“I found the minutes from your meeting with Phillips before you went down in the plane.” 

“Didn’t know those could be found or that they’d been kept.” 

“They told you it was a suicide mission.” 

Steve stays quiet, knowing the best policy was always honesty, but sometimes, not saying something could save someone pain. 

“You still went.” 

“I did.” 

“I didn’t think... Anyone knew how I was feeling. That I was alone, in the team, with those thoughts in my head.” 

He doesn’t look over at the other man, the one that bursts into green from time to time. Two different people, and yet, they both came from the same heart. One was simply the guard, the other the keeper. One behind the other, always. 

Reaching around him, Steve grabs a beer, twists the top off a non-twist bottle that he's changed to when the cans ran out, and hands it over. 

No more is said that night about it, but Bruce puts the minutes away into his coat pocket and Steve thinks that enough for right now. If tonight no more happened than that, it had gotten slightly better with someone at his side. Something was different though, and it mattered that it was Bruce with him tonight. Steve… well, he looked up to the stars and started to talk. Not about anything specific, but eventually he goes to the serum. He doesn’t look at Bruce, just keeps going, saying how it worked in how he did things. Nothing technical, he didn’t know. He doesn’t think anyone knows and that’s the problem. But he tells the doctor things about the serum no one else would ever get to know without the Captain telling them. How far he can jump, what it was like to feel himself become what he is, the way the serum balanced things out by first jacking everything up. 

Bruce hesitates before he starts to ask questions. Steve is honest and open about it, only pausing when the doctor asks about what it was like to control things. Because the Captain has control over every muscle, facial tick, and even his mind. No one could invade it, a shield stood between them and his thoughts. 

Steve asks if Bruce knows how to fight, physically. The doctor shrugs, saying he never thought it to be a good idea, especially afterwards. He doesn’t like inflicting violence. Not really. 

There’s an address written down and the Captain says to go there the next day. They part ways late in the night, neither fully knowing what the other thought. It was generally something that wouldn’t be questioned, a good time or a comfort. But with the two of them, it wasn’t smooth standing, and when Bruce shows up the next day, Steve smiles. 

Tai Chi isn’t exactly fighting, but it helps a bit where meditation may not. Focusing on something outward instead of inward, and Tai Chi turns into yoga and Bruce laughing softly when Steve finds he’s not very good at it at first. There’s a first for everything, however, and it seems that as they go along, he gets the hang of it. When Natasha shows up, it’s not really a surprise she knows what she’s doing. 

Sam on the other hand… he definitely has no clue. 

\----------

He doesn’t get along with Tony. 

Try as he might, there’s a ghost that stands between them. The man Tony grew up with is not the man that Steve remembers. They’ve stonewalled each other and there’s no going back, but they find it hard to move forward. It’s more than that, but it’s a factor that cannot be overlooked. 

It can be approached though, and it’s another night like when Bruce found him that Tony does. Only Stark has a quip and Steve has silence, which only leads to more harassment. 

Almost leads to Tony ending up with a broken jaw, but he’s released soon enough. 

There’s a silence there as the other man realizes how far Steve can be pushed. Exactly what he’s seeing can’t be understood, the ghosts in the corners of his eyes. At least, Tony thinks he could understand, but that Steve doesn’t. The Captain knows that everyone has ghosts, but Tony seems to have a keen fascination with poking his own. Comes down to a difference of opinion. Steve stands by his values, won’t lay down who he is or what he does for others. What’s right is right and he’ll fight for it, because it’s worth it. He doesn’t see that in Tony. 

He did, however, see that in Howard. The unending quest for things to be better, not just faster, stronger, but better. It was for everyone, not just for himself. 

Flying cars aside, of course. 

They part ways that night with that ghost more tangible between them. It’s not until Stark realizes that Fridays are apparently crash Steve’s sofa nights that he starts to frown down at all of them. He has the tower, they could stay there. There was things dedicated to them, built for them. It takes the Captain’s gentle words to pull him away before he offers that it’s not that they don’t like their rooms at the tower. It’s that the tower? Really isn’t their style. 

Tony forgets he’s dealing with soldiers from close knit units, assassins who work alone or in pairs, demi-gods used to whole wings of palaces dedicated to them but with small groups of friends around them and the rooms mostly empty but guards. It wasn’t that they couldn’t be people persons. It was that they preferred not to be in the lime light, like the giant light that shone on that tower. Steve’s apartment was open, but comfortable. It wasn't entirely modern, the appliances still had buttons that they had to push and popcorn that didn’t come out perfect every time, but it was homey. But then he clears his throat, does the grown up thing, and invites Stark to the next one. It always happens but it’s something that he hadn’t realized until recently, that his apartment was the place to be on Fridays. 

Sometimes he wondered if it was because they pitied him for being alone so long, but then he looks at Sam and Clint trying to one up each other at board games, Natasha and Bruce doing yoga or talking about international policy over ice cream (and he didn’t have that kind, where did they get that kind!?), while he and Thor attempt to beat each other at video games. He realizes they don't pity him, not at all. They actually liked him a lot and for some reason, this was a safe zone... Because of him. 

Stark makes it to the Friday after the one he’s invited to. He whines for a bit that there’s nothing to do before Bruce quietly suggests chess. Natasha and Thor volunteer to play and as Clint goes to look for the board, Steve gets them all lasagna with Sam. With minimal dropping of food, thank God, but only just. 

It’s an alright night but Clint and Natasha are quieter. Thor remains the same but Bruce curls inward. Steve decides his family needs a break from Tony and that’s why things happen the way they do. Not to seclude, but to recharge. Stark is bold and bright and popular. All of them are quiet and sure and willing to be off to the side. 

Tony doesn’t come back of his own free will, but the night still changes to Mondays just in case. Steve is pretty sure the team isn't having meetings without him. Family. Whatever they’ve become. Any way, shape, or size, they’re all together now for the better. Slowly but surely, they’re making it work. For each their own, but knowing they have people to fall back on. 

So yeah, he guesses their a family and it brings a smile to his face as Thor finally tips over onto Clint, snoring as the man squawks in his sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a TON of things on my tumblr and in my works in progress folder that I'm slowly going through and putting up here on AO3. So look for quite a few things coming here as I sort through things! Hope you all enjoy.


End file.
